Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog

Monday, May 21, 2018

It's the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada and we got in a few games of 40K yesterday afternoon. We invited The Boyz over to play with us as well.

Astra Militarum vs. Necrons

383.018.M41North of the tropical zone, Brind's World was a desiccated wasteland. An endless expanse of sand and rock, punctuated by the occasional ancient ruin, left by a long dead civilization that disappeared millennia ago. Jumana Erakat felt right at home. The 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment and the 17th Tallarn Super Heavy Tank Regiment had deployed to the planet in support of operations currently underway by other regiments of the Astra Militarum. The 451st found it would soon be in direct support of fellow brothers and sisters of Tallarn - 382nd Tallarn (Desert Raider) Regiment. Having just made planetfall, however, the regiment was still shaking down their equipment after such a long warp passage and only just beginning to patrol their new area of operations.

Sergeant Erakat found herself acting commander of #2 ("Arkan") Troop, 2 Squadron 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment. The regular troop commander's Leman Russ was being serviced by the techpriests. The machine spirits needed supplication. She would be leading two other tanks from the platoon on a short patrol to the east of their Base of Operations. To get the lay of the land. No hostiles were expected to be in the vicinity, but then, they never are...

Attached to her Troop was a Demolisher from the Support Squadron.

Scenario

We played the Patrol Scenario, right out of the core rulebook - with the exception that I had no "Troop" elements.

Victory points were scored solely for enemy units destroyed.

Forces

When we had invited the Boyz over I had indicated that I'd be rolling out with a tank force (I even sent them the picture of all my armoured forces from the previous post so it would be absolutely clear they'd be facing armour!). I had told them to bring up to 50 Power Level of stuff. I fully expected to be facing the Necron's Doom Scythe, Monolith, Annihilation Barge, and/or Tesseract Vault - all the heavy hitters which I knew they had (as my Guaiacan Commandoes had faced them before!)... but the lad, for some reason, brought infantry to a tank fight!? Oh, they're still Infantry that still keeps getting up again after you shoot them down (unless you can wipe out the whole damned unit in one turn), but infantry none the less...

For hours the tanks had rolled over the desert. The heat and the long days, dulled their level of awareness. It was allSergeant Erakat could do to stay awake. She was sure at least one of her sponson gunners had fallen asleep - she could hear his snores from down below. She sat high in the turret, scanning the endless horizon with her magnoculars. Nothing. Kilometre after kilometre, there was nothing. And then there was.

At first she thought it was a mirage. Then adrenaline shot through her body, wrenching her into full awareness, as it dawned on her what she was actually looking at. She quickly voxed back to the squadron commander to confirm that there was no friendly infantry in the area and to the other tanks under her command to make sure they were awake and aware of the infantry on the ridge beyond another ancient ruin. Before she got her response from command, she got her answer from the enemy! Green tinged energy rounds started arcing across the desert and bouncing off the skin of her tanks.

Jumana dropped into the turret and started shouting commands. "Gunners! Enemy infantry on the ridge at 11 o'clock"

A chorus of "Identified!" responded - except Billah in the right sponson who shouted "I don't have a target!"

"Driver veer left 10 degrees, give Billah a target! Gunners FIRE!"

There was an angry roar as the punisher cannon unleashed it's mighty fury! The gunners of sponson and hull heavy boaters joined in as well, but were drowned out by the thousand round per minute torrent of the rotary cannon next to her. The view of the ridge through her visual scope was reduced to a cloud of dust and flying metal parts....

Orders were issued to the other tanks to scan for and engage any enemy on the flanks.

I took pictures of the initial deployment and stuff and then realized at the end of round one that I didn't have a memory card in my camera! DOH! (It's good to know I'm not the only one that does this!). So this first pic is at the end of the first round - I've already blown one of his units of Necron Warriors into wee little metallic fragments that "Reanimation Protocols" can't even bring back! BOOM! So THAT's how you deal with those annoying Necrons!

One Victory Point for me.

ROUND TWO

Puffs of black smoke dotted the ridge as the other tanks of the troop engaged. Where was that Demolisher from the support company? Jumana called for a cease fire as the enemy fire had stopped for the moment. Then out of the clouds of dust and smoke MORE enemy infantry emerged firing their guess weapons at the tanks. Hits were taken.... they really only scratched the paint a bit - but it was alarming enough to get everyones full attention on the task at hand!

All but the Overlord showed up as reinforcements for the Necrons on Round Two. The Annihilation barge seemed like it could potentially do some damage... If he could stop rolling ones and twos to hit!?

The volume of fire from the enemy was large, but, for the most part, ineffectual. Jumana had to keep repositioning her tanks to get an angle on the enemy that tried to make use of every bit of cover they could amongst the ruins or rocky outcrops.

One round two I blasted one of the stands of scarabs and finished off the Deathmarks - another Victory Point! I forgot to roll for reserves.

ROUND THREE

Jumana's tank took a solid hits. Lights flickered and there was cursing from down below as the hull gunner was hit in the face and shoulder with some spalling. More targets fickered into view beyond the ruins and the Punisher Cannon reduced them to many small spare parts.

No reserves for the Necrons. The Anihilation Barge actually scored TWO wounds on the Tank Commanders tank. I think a few of the Lychguard were blowed up, but they all came back the next turn...

The Demolisher finally decided to join the fight.

ROUND FOUR

The Necron Overlord finally showed up. the Annihilation barge scored two more wounds on the Tank Commander's Punisher. The Scarabs were squashed (another Victory Point), 5 necron Warriors were destroyed and the Annihilation Barge took 4 wounds.

The battle raged on. The Xenos constructs just kept coming and the tanks of #2 Troop just kept smashing them to bits. There was no sense in it. Did they not have any sense of self-preservation in their programming? While Jumana had no complaints about the ease at which they were able to wreck these robotic clods, their relentlessness gave her a sense of unease, and she shuddered at the thought of facing more heavily armed and armoured troops with the same inability to retreat...

ROUND FIVE

Eventually the enemy guess fire slackened and then stopped altogether. Jumana called for a ceasefire and they sat, ready for more to appear out of the smoke and dust, but none came....

The Punisher and Demolisher finished off the Lychguard and the two Battle Tanks destroyed the Annihilation barge. The writing was kind of on the wall at that point - I had five victory points. There was no way the Overlord and half a unit of Necron warriors was going to destroy all four tanks in their next two turns (assuming there WAS two more turns, as we were to roll at the end of the next two rounds to see if the game continued).

ELSWHERE ON BRIND'S WORLD

Orks vs. Chaos Space Marines

While I was playing the Necrons, Finnegan and his Orks fought some Chaos Space Marines.

The followers of Khorne came to Brind's world in search of a great weapon believed to be hidden there. As they tromped through the jungle, a small detachment of Chaos Space Marines under a Sorcerer wandered into the territory of Warboss Blitzagg....

They played an Ambush Scenario with the Orks being the Ambushing attackers.

While the Hellbrute, cultists, and Sorcerer came to blows with one of the Ork Mobs, the Raptors and Biker zipped around (or OVER) the orks and were off the table on by Round Two or Three - effectively ending the game as that accounted for nearly half the forces Power Level and they only needed one third of the force to escape to secure a victory.

After our first games were done, we switched up and Finnegan's Orks fought the Necrons in the Jungle and The Girls' Harlequins faced the forces of Chaos out own the desert....

Necrons vs. Orks

For this battle, the boys tried an Eternal War scenario: The Scourging. The scenario had a random length and points were awarded at the end for whoever controlled objective markers. There was one marker worth four points, two worth two points and one worth only one.

By all accounts it was a pretty epic battle (I was busy helping the others play their game and only popped by to take the occasional picture).

The orks started with the two objectives worth six points within their grasp. Not content to rest upon their laurels, Warboss Blitzagg lead the charge with his mega nobs to wrest the other objectives from the "clankies".

The warboss and his meganobs went toe-to-toe with the Overlord and his Lychguard - and took them OUT!

Elsewhere the Mobs and Lootas holding their objectives were savaged by Necron fire... had the game lasted another turn or two it might have swung in completely the opposite direction. but as it was, the game ended after Round Five with he Orks scoring ELEVEN victory points (eight for objective markers, and one each for First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker) and the Necrons only two!

Chaos Space Marines vs. Aeldari

Meanwhile the Chaos space marines had evacuated the Jungle and started searching the ruins in the desert, they must have been getting close because our of nowhere the Aeldari appeared and savagely attacked their search party...

They too decided to try and Eternal War Scenario. They rolled "Big Guns Never Tire", but as neither has any Heavy Support, they would only score points for Objective markers (three each) and the standard one for First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker...

Chaos went first and delivered some serious Alpha Smite. Due to some poor positioning of troops, The Girl nearly lost Jain Zar in the first round (all but ONE WOUND lost!) and the Howling Banshees were nearly wiped out (loosing 3 of 5 - and the other two surviving by rolling some incredible saves!)

But after that it was all downhill for Chaos...

The grievously wounded Jain Zar and the remaining Banshees advanced on the Bikers and wiped them out with fire and then charged the Hellbrute.

The Hellbrute took two turns to take down, but didn't manage to do much damage to the Eldar.

the Raptors dropped in behind the Eldar lines. The Eldar lost one of their Warlocks - I can't remember if it was to the Raptors or the Sorcerer (I THINK it was the Sorcerer...?) The other Warlock took out two of the Reports.

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of it, but he Eldar dropped some Swooping Hawks behind the Chaos troops and they wiped out the Cultists.

The Farseer laid some smack down on the sorcerer and then the remaining Chaos forces decided to call it a day....

Fun was had. I got to blow shit up. The Eldar got to lay some serious smack down (which was important because I think The Girl was starting to feel like they "weren't very good" after a few set backs in previous games).

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I've been working on assorted bits and bobs for 40K/Rouge Trader and slowly making some progress on the Arvis Lighter...

Thursday, May 17, 2018

TWO more tanks rolled off the assembly line this past week. Both of these I picked up used, assembled and partly painted. I did a bit of converting and repainted them entirely.

First we have #201 - The vanquisher belonging to the commander of 2 Squadron 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment - Captain Naji Raji.

With the others I put the tanks name at the back of the turret buckets and the tank's number on the sides of the buckets. But this one had spare track glued on there. I tried taking a section of it off, but it just wrecked the buckets, so I glued it back in place and painted the numbers and name elsewhere.

This tank I named "Quns" or "Snipe" (the verb, not the bird).

This Vanquisher was actually made from part of a metal barrel for an old Demolisher with a battle cannon barrel attached to the end of it. It wasn't a pretty conversion, but I hadn't the parts to completely replace the barrel. So I tried to hide the joint with some camouflage netting (made from a gauze pad).

I'd have preferred a regular Battle Tank or a Demolisher... or anything other than a Vanquisher, really. Vanquishers seem pretty weak in 8th. Fluff-wise, I think the Vanquishers are supposed to be bad-ass longer range versions of the battle tank. But in 8th edition 40K basically the battle tank fires HE and the Vanquisher fires an AP round.

The way AP rounds are represented in 8th is Heavy1 and a higher AP (-3 instead of -2), and damage per hit (d6 damage instead of d3).... Which is great, if you can actually HIT the target! As the bog standard Leman Russ crew has a 4+ Ballistic Skill (I should say "STARTING" ballistic skill, as it quickly degrades as the tank starts to take damage). A regular battle cannon had Heavy D6 - which means, on average, it's going to get 3 shots at a target rather than one, so it's more likely to hit. As the regular battle cannon has the same strength as the Vanquisher... I'd rather have more chances to hit!

This is why I made this a company command tank - the company commanders tank has a veteran crew with a 3+ Ballistic Skill. It'll probably only get fielded when I need more than the 3-5 tanks in the 2 Troop are needed.

Why did I pick this up...? it was $20 (CAD) and already assembled... so, it seemed like a good idea at the time...?

Second is a Demolisher.

This is an old school demolisher with a cast metal barrel and sponson guns! The Demolisher is #832 and named "Matraqa" (which, if Google Translate is to believed, means "hammer" or "maul") commanded by Warrant Officer Mzali.

The first number in the numbering system I use indicated the squadron (company) the tanks is from, the second is the troop (platoon), and the third is the number of the tank within the troop. This is thus the second tank, 3rd Troop, 8th Squadron.

I figured the Demolisher is more like an assault vehicle, probably from a specialist engineering or support squadron, so I decided the 8th Squadron could be an assault engineer or support squadron within the 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment.

I'm getting to have quite the armoured force! I have two more Leman Russ tanks to assemble - they will both be regular Battle Tanks to finish off #2 (Arkan) Troop, 2 Squadron, 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment.

I also have a Basilisk to paint up. I need to do a bit of work on it - it was missing the railing and steps... and the BFG from the Bones 3 Kickstarter, which I thought I'd be able to pass off as Earth Shaker Cannon on a carriage mount. And a few more Sentinels... and loads of infantry and support stands and roughriders...

Oh, this will all keep me busy for some time.

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have the Arvis Lighter back on the painting desk along with all the Terminators from the Space Hulk game... They seem rather daunting. I should probably only put 2-3 on the table at a time. There are also piles of assorted sci-fi bits and bobs cluttering up the periphery of the table... Who knows what I'll actually finish up next...

We're heading into a long weekend, so hopefully we'll get some gaming in and I'll have some reports to post!

Friday, May 4, 2018

I finally finished up the Shadowsword! I had picked it up on Boxing Day and started assembling shortly thereafter, but then, y'know, got distracted... Or, perhaps, realized I had other things that were higher priorities...?

The device on the front of the... whatever that part is called...? Not really a turret as it doesn't rotate...? Anyway, it was meant to be a company crest - a little play on the RAID logo. The impetus to pick up this thing was because my friend's son with the Tyranids and Necrons went and got himself a Hierophant Biotitan... I thought I'd get something to oppose it... of course then I realized I'd need, like, FIVE of these to take that thing down and there's no way I could justify spending that much money. So Raid... Tallarn Desert Raiders... Originally I'd wanted to change the words in the shield to "raider" but in Arabic is doesn't seem to be as simple as putting an "er" at the end of the word for "raid" to make "raider" - so I went with the word for Raid because... well... it fit... At first I didn't love it "Raid Squadron"...? For Super Heavies?! I'm warming up to it though...

There is a megalomaniac part of me that WOULD like to finish the squadron - with three or four more super heavies - Baneblades and Shadowswords. I like the idea of

The bug silhouette at the bottom is supposed to be a genestealer...

A bit of extra kit sowed behind the main crew compartment...? A couple I tried to make look like rugs or carpets. Perhaps they're prayer carpets - so the Tallarn can face roll them out on the ground, face Terra and pray to the God Emperor of Mankind...? The little shrine on the back of the tank is a nice little touch.

I don't actually have a NAME for my Shadowsword just yet.. There's a little plate on the side for the name to go in. It's really tiny though, I'm not sure I'll be able to freehand any Arabic in there. I might have to just print something off and glue it in... when I think of something... Any ideas?

The thing is freaking HUGE and dwarfs the other tanks.

So tall the sponson guns could shoot right over these Roughriders! Although, If I were one of those roughriders, a lascannon and twin heavy boaters firing just over my head would make me a tad nervous!

Infantry and Sentinel (well, part of one) for scale...

Feeling a bit more confident with a super-heavy to back them up!

I'm not sure when this thing is going to actually see any ACTION... work on the Biotitan seems to have stalled (which I am not all that sad about). My kids don't really have anything that could face this... I did try and convince Finnegan to get a Stompa... But he didn't go for it and he's winding up the Orks and wanting to move on to Tau. The girl did pick up a used Wraith Knight... that thing might go toe-to-toe with the Shadowsword... Actually it would probably bound across the table and catch it up in close combat and then proceed to hack it in half with the great big freaking blade it carries...

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Well... What next...? I was thinking while I'm on a roll I might finish off a few more Tallarn Tanks... or maybe get cracking on the Warhound Titan....? but I might also switch gears and try to finish up the Teminators for Space Hulk (now that I finally have the Genestealers DONE!) or start in on a few of the Drukhari...? I guess it will be a surprise.

We'd spent most of the first week figuring out how to play all of the various expansions in the Carcassonne Big Box. This week we carried on with he same - as there were a few more smaller ones we hadn't tried yet. I think this was our first time trying King & Robber and Cults...? We also used River II. In the end Finnegan and The Girl tied with 114 and I had 106 points.

I may have mentioned... but I love this game. winning is kind of secondary to building a weird and wonderful castle... Well... usually... This one I did win, but the castle was kind of.. Meh... the kids kept snapping up all the FUN rooms and leaving me with all these stupid ones that gave me tonnes of points!? I DID get the Venus Grotto, so... There is that...

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

More Carcassonne. I think this was our first try with the Count of Carcassonne... also used River II and Traders & Builders.

I'm not sure how useful Count of Carcassonne is... It seems like another thing that might help with NOT screwing people over with crappy tile placement and actually encourage people to help others finish their stuff by offering an incentive... but the mechanics of how the count moves around seems a bit fiddly to me... in ended up only being used to score bonus points for other peoples cloisters.

Seems we had a good time.

Finnegan rocked it - scoring 153 points. The Girl was second with 101 and I ended up with only 98?! Not sure how that worked out. And he had been complaining he NEVER WON!?

Friday, 13 April 2018

Friday Bob and Bruce came over and played some Rogue Trader with me, Amanda and Finnegan... well... sort of... it was supposed to be our Rogue Trader evening. I ended up playing a tabletop adventure using Warhammer 40K 8th Edition. You can read more about it here:

On Sunday we sat down to play a game of MEGA Carcassonne - with all of the expansions in out Carcassonne Big Box - Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, Princess & The Dragon, Abbey & Mayor, and River II, Count, King & Cult.

Wow... this looked a little dangerous off the start...

Counting up the points at the end of it all... Somehow I managed to do well this evening - I scored 241 points! Amanda had 218, Finnegan 182, and The Girl 147!?

Of course as we went to put it all away we realized we has somehow forgot to get out one stack of tiles and has only been playing with HALF of the base set!? GAH!? Guess We'll have to try another MEGA CARCASSONNE game sometime soon - before we forget how all the expansions work!?

Monday, 23 April 2018

Didn't get in another game for over a week. We had planned one playing games on Saturday. We'd told Amanda we were going to try and play the final game in Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle (which was just a ruse to get her to not make other plans for the afternoon so we could plan a surprise birthday party for her!). The party itself mostly involved gaming friends and the invite suggested there might be gaming going on, but in the end we all just hung out... so... Monday... The kids and I sat down and played a couple of quick games of Kingdomino after they got back from swim lessons while we were waiting for Amanda to get home from her Improv class...

The first round didn't go so well... poor planning meant the kids ended up having to discord tiles and ended the game with incomplete kingdoms...

Round two wend a little better. Finnegan still ended up having to discard his final tile, but The Girl ended with a complete kingdom.

My tidy little kingdom.

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

On Wednesday I travelled over to John's to try out Flamme Rouge with Brent and Connel.

The first game we played was Firenze-Milano. As I rode my bike over there I got to set up first so I set up at the rear, thinking I'd sit in and let the others pick up all the exhaustion cards... This isn't necessarily the best plan, I discovered....

Nearing the end, one of my riders (looks like my Sprinter!?) had been dropped and the other wasn't nearly close enough to the front... AND because I had been sitting in and NOT picking up and exhaustion cards I was running out and had been burning my higher cards when I didn't need to earlier...

The photo finish! Second place is the first LOSER! And that's my Rolleur!?

The second game we played (La Haunt Montagne...? or something like that...?). BOTH my guys, totally dropped!

There was no need to hold onto those Nines the sprinter had when it's a mountain top finish!

I like this game... It's pretty simple, but it's got all the elements that should be in a bicycle racing game - hills, drafting, limited energy.

I can't buy it.

Seriously... I still have a copy of Giro D'Italia still in shrink wrap sitting on my shelf that I got excited and bought after playing Leader 1 at John's place a few years back!?

When he finished up he set up another game and I joined I'm. Finnegan sat out and just looked around the store as Darrin was supposed to be showing up soon to run Sentinels of the Multiverse.

I'm playing White. Decided to sit a little closer to the front this time, but not right at the front.

Playing with Richard (Red), Whitney (Blue), Angie(?) (Pink), and Brent (Black). There are cobblestones in the Peloton expansion. And pinch points. so fun. Still can't buy it...

I was trailing for a bit with Richard but clawed my way to the front of the peloton after the cobblestones, just before the curvy race to the end. My sprinter only had one of his nine cards left, but there was a short hill just before the finish - if I timed my break right, I might just make it...

And I totally did. I was off the front on the next round and had a bit of a lead. Just before the end this chase group reeled me in, but they'd burned all their cards as well and that little hill meant no one could play anything higher than a five and I had a five and was ahead of everyone... so.. win for me finally!! Yay!!!!

By the time we were done that Amanda and The Girl had showed up after dance classes - just in time for the Kingdomino tournament. Only eight signed up and four of the eight was our family - and they were giving away two copies of the game as prizes! Plus there were a bunch of other goodies (new castles and a card tower).

Amanda and Finnegan were in one group with Richard and Alex.

The Girl and I were in the other with Josh and Whitney.

Top two players from each would advance and play in a second round. Top two scorers in the second round would win a copy of the game.

Counting up points at the end of Round One.

My little Kingdom at the end of Round One (which I won, but only barely - The Girl was only a point behind and Josh, who had never played before, was only two points behind!)

So The Girl and I found ourselves playing against Richard and Finnegan in the final round.

Amanda ended up being talked into a game of Monty Python Fluxx with Whitney, which was weird because at home she says can't stand the game and won't play it with us...? I did notice that Whitney didn't sing nearly as much as the rest of us do....?

I came in second in Round Two of the Kingdomino tournament and won a copy! I gave it to Josh, though (the guy I'd played in Round One) - we already have a copy... and he'd played so well...

Unfortunately there was a power outage just as we were sitting down to play... So we started off in half darkness with flashlights handy, plus a little lamp The Girl had made and a headlamp I was wearing...

Luckily the lights went back on only a few minutes into the game.

I spent way too much time screwing around trying to collect up gems for the high point cards. I ended the game with only TWO scoring cards in last place. If I'd had one more play I would have picked up a card for 20 points, but it wouldn't have helped much... Keira ended the game having picked up five, but it was Finnegan that won with four, edging her out by a point!

Mechanically it is the EXACT SAME GAME as Century: Spice Road. Aesthetically, I think I prefer the original. The kids like the golem illustrations on this version and Amanda seems to like the pretty gems, so...

This afternoon we played a game of Legendary with the Dark City and Fantastic Four expansions. We played with The Fantastic Four plus Daredevil against Dr. Doom and The Doombot Legion and an assortment of other baddies. It was fun and didn't take too long. I wanted to try out Daredevil, but the cards just weren't coming out. I only ended up with two of them...

So we got in a few more games... Unfortunately this did little towards completing our 25/30x5 Challenge - the only games we played that were on the list, other than this afternoon's game of Legendary, we've already played more than five times... As I've said, though, the purpose of the challenge is to have fun and inspire us to play games. As long as we're playing games and having fun, who cares...? Maybe next month we'll tick a few off our chart.

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Shadowsword...

After that...? Maybe some Drukhari...? Or more tanks?! or maybe a game report...?